


like we planned

by lunar_peach



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: (minor) spoilers, Fix-It, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Fluff, i don't know what else to tag this to be honest, its just cute and i needed it today so here it is, post ep 24 but like no one dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 16:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17922152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunar_peach/pseuds/lunar_peach
Summary: They were a comforting sight. Ash’s skin, golden, and the freckles that coated his cheeks and back, proudly displayed. Eiji looks at himself with his arm around him and yearns to go back. Back to swimming and fishing and eating junk food. In them, they look like they should have always looked. Young and carefree. Normal.---a fix it fic because ive been in pain over this anime for too long





	like we planned

**Author's Note:**

> fuck canon lives, this is what should've happened

There is silence on the line until he speaks. 

“I heard you were stabbed.” He says it resolutely, challenging him to explain himself. There’s no need for a formal greeting. Eiji leans back against his bed and draws the phone closer to his ear. 

“I heard you were hell bent on flying back here.” He’s not going to explain himself, but Eiji accepts this. Ash laughs, low and hearty, half a world away. “Max told me you wrestled Ibe to the ground trying to get away.” 

Eiji rests his head against his mattress and smiles. “It took both him and my mom to hold me back. I think they forget I’m an athlete.” He lets out a snort and looks to the photographs sprawled out before him on the floor. “To be fair, sometimes I forget too.” He fiddles with the drawstrings of his hoodie.

“I don’t know how,” Ash laughs. “Remember all those times you had to _physically_ pull me out of bed? That takes a lot of strength…” As he speaks, Eiji’s eyes wander over to the photographs. 

They show their summer, the one they spent in Cape Cod and Los Angeles. He developed the film not long after he arrived in Japan, just after Ibe let him know what happened. As he spent his days pacing back and forth, thinking of ways to make it back to him, they kept him company. They were a comforting sight. Ash’s skin, golden, and the freckles that coated his cheeks and back, proudly displayed. Eiji looks at himself with his arm around him and yearns to go back. Back to swimming and fishing and eating junk food. In them, they look like they should have always looked. Young and carefree. Normal. 

“Eiji?” Ash sounds concerned. He’s wounded and laying some hospital, hooked up to a bunch of machines, and still, he worries about him. But that’s who he is. That’s who he’s always been. “Are you okay? Should I call someone--”

Eiji doesn’t realize he’s been audibly crying into the receiver for some time. The tears pool and stream down his face like ribbons coming undone. “No--I’m good. It’s nothing, I’m… I’m just really happy you’re alright, Ash. When Max called-- he said you lost a lot of blood. I kept thinking that--” He chokes on the words, fully sobbing now. “I thought you weren’t going to make it.” 

For hours, he prepared himself to hear that news. 

Even so, Eiji couldn’t picture living life without Ash by his side. He couldn’t go back to the way things were before New York. He couldn’t accept death as the ending to their story. Not when they’d come so far. For hours he lay crying and tortured in his room, refusing to see anyone until there was news. 

“After everything I put you through, you really think I’d let some stupid stab wound kill me? Nah, no chance. You’re stuck with me until we _both_ die, old and ugly and losing our minds. So, no more crying. Got it?” 

He’s still crying, but he manages to laugh. “Yeah… got it.” 

Ash tells him about all the free time he’s got on his hands, just lounging around the hospital. He reads almost a book a day, with Max and Jessica taking turns in bringing him new ones. Eiji listens with intent, feeling almost like regular old lovers, catching up after time apart. He loses himself in Ash’s stories about Kong and Alex and Bones-- serene for the first time in months. He sounds lively and happy, but as time goes on, Eiji can hear the pain in his voice rise over and over. 

Then there’s a break. Ash stops talking.

Voice shaking, he says, “Eiji, I’m so sorry I put you through all of this. I don’t know what I was thinking, I should have been paying more attention. I could have made it to the airport if I had just--” He gasped and Eiji can hear how hard he’s trying to hide his tears. “And your letter… I’m so sorry. The paramedics, they lost it and--”

“I’ll write you a million letters,” he says. The tears don’t stop falling. He doesn’t want them to. For the first time in his life, they don’t mean weakness of sadness, they mean relief- Joy. “And then I’ll write you a million more. Ash, you don’t have to apologize. You don’t _ever_ have to apologize for _anything_.” It’s so dramatic, but he means every word. 

They’re both crying, and then they’re both laughing through the tears because they’re both crying. Ash is safe. Eiji is too. They made it. 

The world feels at peace. 

They take time to gather themselves before they speak again. 

“So, what are you doing? Are you bedridden like me or...?”

Eiji sniffles. “No, I’m… homebound mostly… Sitting in my room, looking over some photos… I’m wearing your hoodie.” He doesn’t know why he tells him this. Eiji planned on keeping it a secret.  
He’d been wearing it for days and days, sure that he was erasing Ash’s traces but comforted by the fleeting scent of him nonetheless. 

“Oh.” He can hear his breath catch. “How did you--?” 

“Ibe thought it was mine. I hope you don’t mind… it helps when I-- it helps me feel better.” It sounds dumb, saying it out loud like that.  
He tries to backtrack. “I don’t know, it’s stupid. I can mail it back if you--” 

“N-no. You should keep it. I don’t mind.” The clock on his wall ticks away. It’s well into the night, but Eiji doesn’t care. Time zones wouldn’t be the thing to keep them apart now. “It can hold my place until I see you again.” Eiji hums in delight and closes his eyes, letting the hoodie on his body swallow him whole, picturing it's him. 

“I’m learning Japanese,” Ash says suddenly. “I understand a lot of it, but pronunciation is gonna take some practice. But I’ll get it down. And when I do, and everything here is settled...” Eiji perks up immediately, certain that Ash is blushing. “I’ll go to you. Like we planned.” 

His heart soars, above the clouds, close to the sun, all the way back to New York. 

“But for now, don’t think about me being sickly or wounded or whatever image of me you’ve got in your head… we’ll be like everyone else from now on,” Ash continues. “Pretend I’m off at college, drinking coffee, hanging in in the quad and studying long into the night.” Eiji giggles. He can’t see it, not even a little bit. Ash knows more than anyone in any college could ever hope to.

“Pretend that’s why we can’t see each other… I’ll be your American boyfriend studying classic literature, and you’ll be the love of my life I do it all for. Yeah?” 

_Boyfriend. The love of his life._ It flows from his tongue like the most natural thing to say. The words hit him in waves of heat. 

Now it’s his turn to blush. 

“Okay,” Eiji whispers, soft and full of love. 

A world apart, they make a promise. 

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on twitter: @eijinomics or tumblr: rainbowvictor for more content   
> :)!


End file.
